“Ye are beautiful,” he breathed. “Every inch of ye is beautiful.”
He knelt between her knees, leaned down and laid a tiny kiss on her belly. Maddy gasped, arching towards him. What was he trying to do to her? His touch was electric, and it sent trills of desire through her, so deep and so powerful that they were almost unbearable. But she bore them. As he laid more kisses across her skin, she bit her lip to keep herself still, trying not to writhe and gasp under his touch.
She had never experienced anything like it. Instinctively, he read her needs. Read her body and the way it reacted, read her responses and how to deepen them. He trailed the tip of his tongue around her navel, laying tiny sensual kisses all the way down her belly, to the inside of her thighs, and then finally, finally, he found the heat between her legs, his lips and tongue caressing her sweet spot.
It was too much. She couldn’t stand it. She tilted her hips, bucking against him, her hands knotting in his thick hair. How did he know exactly what she needed? How was he able to pinpoint the exact right spot that would send pleasure ricocheting through her?
She moaned deep in her throat, screwing her eyes tight shut as the sensations increased, tingling as though her nerves had been set alight. He brought her to the brink, hanging her over the precipice. And then he stopped.
He raised his head and looked at her, his eyes dark pits in which reflections of the firelight danced. “Last chance,” he said, his voice a rumble deep in his chest that sounded like an animal growl. “If ye wish me to stop, ye must say so.”
Was he kidding? “Stop?” she managed to gasp. “Deryn, I never want you to stop.”
As if to demonstrate exactly what she meant, she grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. Now he was naked too and she couldn’t help how her eyes widened at the sight of him. His chest and abs were sculpted through long years of toil, first with a sword and then with a spade, and the thatch of hair at his groin was as red as that on his head. His erection stood out thick and proud and at the sight Maddy found her breath leaving her in a long, slow hiss.
She reached out and took hold, wrapping her fingers around the whole solid length of him, and stroking gently. He tipped his head back, his eyes sliding closed, and a growl reverberating through his chest. Empowerment filled her as she gave him pleasure, stroking him faster and faster, his nostrils flaring and his fists clenching at the sensations she was engendering in him. It filled her with a heady sense of euphoria.
He opened his eyes and looked down at her. Then he removed her hands and pinned them over her head. “I canna hold off any longer. I have to have ye.”
“Then have me,” she choked out, barely able to form the words past the desire swirling in her blood.
In response, Deryn dropped his weight onto her and nudged her knees further apart. Eyes fixed on hers, he slowly tilted his hips and pushed himself smoothly inside her. Maddy gasped as he filled her, moving her hips to meet his thrust, taking him all the way inside, as deep as he would go. It was everything she’d imagined. It was everything she’d dreamed during those moments when she’d let her imagination run wild and pictured them being together like this. She felt whole. Complete.
What is this?she thought.Is this what love is? Is this how it changes things?
Deryn began to move. He made love to her slowly, his fingers twined through hers, his face only inches away.
“I love ye,” he murmured. “My Madeleine.”
Emotion closed her throat and she couldn’t speak. She had to blink a few times before she could reply. “I love you too, Deryn. All the way down to my bones.”
He pressed his forehead to hers and as he did so, his tempo increased. He thrust into her more fiercely now, and she matched him, her body moving in time with his. Her hands swept down his back, feeling his muscles bunching and relaxing, feeling the thin sheen of sweat that gathered on his skin.
Electricity was burning through her again. Starting from the place where their bodies joined, it rippled out in waves, tightening her stomach, contracting her muscles, making her head spin with something akin to ecstasy. Dimly, she was aware that she was gasping, moaning, her head thrown back, her hands clutching his buttocks, the sound of their lovemaking filling the little room.
Then orgasm exploded through her and she shattered into a million pieces, shouting his name to the rafters.
A moment later, Deryn jerked, his body going tense and a low growl echoing in his throat as he too found his release. He collapsed on top of her and Maddy wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly.
He raised his head. In the flickering firelight, his eyes were just dark pools of shadow but the smile he gave her lit the room like the sun.
“Ah, my love,” he breathed. “I had never dreamed aught could feel like this.”
My love.Oh my, it felt so good to hear those words from his lips.
She brushed the hair from his eyes. “Me neither. Like I said, I keep thinking this is a dream.”
“Then I hope neither of us ever wake.”
He rolled away and pulled her after him. She fitted her body against his and rested her head on his shoulder. The heat from his skin was enough to keep her warm. She felt sleep creeping up on her, a contented lassitude filling her limbs, but she fought it. She and Deryn had this one night together. She had no idea when they might get another, and she didn’t want to miss a moment of it. Of him. So she raised herself on her elbows, gazing down at him.
He took her breath away. Even looking at him sent tingles through her body. So this was love? This feeling of being so connected to another that you felt their presence like a warm tingle whenever they were near?
“I wonder if Darla planned on this happening when she offered to take Rory,” she said.
“Of course she did!” Deryn replied. “That woman is a wily one. And no doubt she’ll be gossiping to anyone who’ll listen.”
Maddy raised an eyebrow. “Then we’d better make sure there’s plenty to gossip about, hadn’t we?”
